Newly Built Meeting Facility Hosted Caribbean Marketplace in January

Prime Minister Bruce Golding on January 7 officially declared open the new Montego Bay Convention Centre in the island’s tourism capital, which will enable Jamaica to claim a piece of the estimated US$280 billion worldwide conventions and exhibitions market. The soft opening came ahead of Caribbean Marketplace 2011, the first event held at the newly built facility, January 16-18.

Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett who was on hand to celebrate the occasion noted that the Montego Bay Convention Centre is an important addition to Jamaica’s tourism product and the Caribbean Marketplace will provide us an opportunity to showcase what will be the largest convention center of the English speaking Caribbean region, once it is completed. A number of government and tourism officials were in attendance. Among them Opposition spokesman on Tourism, Dr. Wykeham McNeil; minister of Water and Housing, Dr. Horace Chang; chairman of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), Wayne Chen; director of Tourism, John Lynch; director general in the Ministry of Tourism, Carrole Guntley; president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) Wayne Cummings and Josef Forstmayr, president of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA).

The opening of the Montego Bay Convention Centre provides in excess of 50,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space, over 20,000 sq. ft. of banquet facility and more than 11,000 sq. ft. of meeting space. Major work was completed in January.